SAN DIEGO, Calif. - July 31, 2008 - Station Voice, a service powered by Vivox® that allows players to talk to each other in online games, is now available in the role-playing games EverQuest® II and Star Wars GalaxiesTM, Sony Online Entertainment LLC (SOE), announced today. Station Voice, which is scheduled to be available next month in EverQuest, is available for players at no additional cost with their current subscription plan.

"In-game voice chat is an enhanced new feature gamers of all levels can enjoy. Now, SOE's players can easily talk to one another and better enjoy the online gaming experience," said John Smedley, president of Sony Online Entertainment. "The integration of Station Voice into these initial games was seamless, and we look forward to incorporating this added gaming experience into other SOE titles, as well as implementing the next phase of features to come soon."

The initial launch of Station Voice will allow players to:

Talk person-to-person in game with any microphone and headset combo

Chat with their party, guild or any other group in game

Play and communicate without worry of a significant increase in game lag

Manage group/user participation with moderator controls

Individually mute and set volume per user

Set up easily without the need for separate software, accounts or registration

"SOE's commitment to the player experience and their game communities is unrivalled and presents an incredible opportunity to demonstrate the power of voice," said Rob Seaver, CEO of Vivox. "Through a magnificent implementation, SOE has delivered high quality voice chat, seamless access, instant groups, intuitive controls and a fantastic and immersive experience for their players."

In addition to these current features, SOE is planning to implement other Vivox services into Station Voice later this year, such as voice fonts and the ability to connect to games from Station Launcher. SOE's plan to integrate the service with Station Launcher should allow anyone who uses the Station Launcher, even if he or she doesn't otherwise subscribe to an SOE game, to take advantage of these powerful voice chat capabilities. These features, which are intended to support hundreds of players in a channel, are also slated to be extended to other current and future SOE titles, such as The Agency.

For specific details and tips on how to use Station Voice in each game, log onto www.station.sony.com/stationvoice/

Comments

The voice chat software was just patched to Test a couple of days ago, and works reasonably well based on my (limited) experience. I don't know when it will go Live exactly, but if you want a preview of what it'll be like, come check it out on Test.